2020 Cast Bullet Signup Thread

Are you taking orders yet for a completed unit?
No
I'm swamped between work and my son's engineering classes - third year dual major and all his classes are virtual. Only gets to show up for labs with minimal support.
I should get some of his tuition money for ammo...

I did get to setup a more rigid fixture to cut out the holes in an atx case before he got home from work. If that setup works I'll only need to clean up the corners by hand so making enclosures will be quick.
 
The ATX case is just a little too tall to make it easy to machine on my mill. Could fix that by buying an 1/8" MT2 collet but for the $20 a nice case costs it isn't worth my time to disassemble, machine and then paint an atx case. Going to make a couple of blank face plates for the case I have so I don't have to worry about tossing a case because the G-code wasn't perfect the first time.
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The ATX case is just a little too tall to make it easy to machine on my mill. Could fix that by buying an 1/8" MT2 collet but for the $20 a nice case costs it isn't worth my time to disassemble, machine and then paint an atx case. Going to make a couple of blank face plates for the case I have so I don't have to worry about tossing a case because the G-code wasn't perfect the first time.
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Looks like reasonable work around to milling the enclosure plate openings is using a nibler as shown on Johnny's Reloading Bench vid:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns1Y03Ay27c

Think I'm going to dive in and give it a try. Will probably add a fan to the case, in case I want to drive something other than my Lee 20lb in the future. This one seems to get good reviews and is reported to be fairly quiet: Amazon product ASIN B009OWVUJ0View: https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-Cooling-Ventilation-Projects/dp/B009OWVUJ0


Will provide some updates when I get material on hand and get into assembly.
 
Got some basement time
Machining the enclosure faceplate is very easy (except I did the g-code for a center cutting endmill not realizing the ones I have are not)

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Sorry, got side tracked rebuilding a snow blower. Finally got the Easy Bake oven fired up to coat the first batch of boolits from the seminar. Definitely need to get a second basket fab'd up. Went with 4 coats of red copper. Funny how the first couple looked more gold than copper. I was closer to 2.5 ml for 3.1 lbs and maybe a bit lighter on the first couple coats because I didn't want to over do it. They started out about 0.360-0.361 raw and ended up 0.362-0.363 coated. Then like a bonehead I sized them for 0.356 instead of 0.358. Guess I'll be shooting 9mm. Just wanted the teacher to know his efforts were not in vain. Thanks Michael.

The PID controller is done and it works. Will post pics soon. New molds are sooted. Just need to heat and lube. Should be melting lead and hopefully casting by end of the week.

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Sorry, got side tracked rebuilding a snow blower. Finally got the Easy Bake oven fired up to coat the first batch of boolits from the seminar. Definitely need to get a second basket fab'd up. Went with 4 coats of red copper. Funny how the first couple looked more gold than copper. I was closer to 2.5 ml for 3.1 lbs and maybe a bit lighter on the first couple coats because I didn't want to over do it. They started out about 0.360-0.361 raw and ended up 0.362-0.363 coated. Then like a bonehead I sized them for 0.356 instead of 0.358. Guess I'll be shooting 9mm. Just wanted the teacher to know his efforts were not in vain. Thanks Michael.

The PID controller is done and it works. Will post pics soon. New molds are sooted. Just need to heat and lube. Should be melting lead and hopefully casting by end of the week.

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awesome man! Great work!
 
Ok finally posting the DIY PID temp controller pics. Included wiring for a small fan, but no evidence yet that I will need it. Works as intended. Thanks to everyone who shared knowledge during the seminar, otherwise would never have undertaken this project!
 

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Ok finally posting the DIY PID temp controller pics. Included wiring for a small fan, but no evidence yet that I will need it. Works as intended. Thanks to everyone who shared knowledge during the seminar, otherwise would never have undertaken this project!
That looks awesome!
 
Better than I would do, is there a way to rig a fan to the pid to come one at a set point or alarm setting?

The PID unit has a relay hooked to one of the alarms but that is triggered by the thermocouple temperature - you could use it to control a fan to cool your pot.

If you need a fan to cool the controller then running one full time is the easy option (or you can use a controller like you linked)
 
Sorry guys I haven't been on in a long time. I have been so busy with The Museum and all these COVID Mandates. On February 29, 2020 the President of the Museum passed away from Cancer. Three months before I agreed to be Vice President because we didn't have one and no one was stepping forward. When Joe passed I became president of the Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Military Museum and two weeks later we were ordered closed by State. It has been a fight to get the Museum back up and running and we had to cut our hours due to lack of Volunteers because of COVID concerns. I hope to be at next years seminar. I am usually there on Sundays if you want to come down and check it out. One thing we did get done was a 3D tour if you go to this site, you can view fort Rodman and if you click on the #D blocks it will bring you on a Virtual Tour of the Museum 360 Tour - Fort Taber-Fort Rodman (hanneyps.com) I hope to see everyone at this years seminar!!
 
Sorry guys I haven't been on in a long time. I have been so busy with The Museum and all these COVID Mandates. On February 29, 2020 the President of the Museum passed away from Cancer. Three months before I agreed to be Vice President because we didn't have one and no one was stepping forward. When Joe passed I became president of the Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Military Museum and two weeks later we were ordered closed by State. It has been a fight to get the Museum back up and running and we had to cut our hours due to lack of Volunteers because of COVID concerns. I hope to be at next years seminar. I am usually there on Sundays if you want to come down and check it out. One thing we did get done was a 3D tour if you go to this site, you can view fort Rodman and if you click on the #D blocks it will bring you on a Virtual Tour of the Museum 360 Tour - Fort Taber-Fort Rodman (hanneyps.com) I hope to see everyone at this years seminar!!
Thanks Bill!!
 
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